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This Sherlock Holmes novel features a Pinkerton agent who is based on James McParland, the agent who infiltrated the Molly Maguires. William Pinkerton was angered by the inclusion of this confidential information.
In 1914, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear. This story featured a Pinkerton agent named Bertie Edwards, who was based on James McParland a...
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Episode: The Pinkerton Detective Agency | The Public Eye |...
This Sherlock Holmes novel features a Pinkerton agent who is based on James McParland, the agent who infiltrated the Molly Maguires. William Pinkerton was angered by the inclusion of this confidential information.
In 1914, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear. This story featured a Pinkerton agent named Bertie Edwards, who was based on James McParland and his undercover infiltration of the Molly Maguires.
Doyle had learned about McParland from William Pinkerton personally when they sailed together across the Atlantic.
But William Pinkerton was furious that Doyle used this confidential information without asking permission.
He even threatened to sue Doyle, though he eventually backed down.
Doyle wrote letters of apology, but the friendship between the two men never recovered.
William Pinkerton professed his hatred of all fictional depictions of his agents and called Doyle's stories bunk.
He once told a reporter, "...that sort of rot gives people the wrong idea about the way we work."